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Mephedrone: Top 10 Facts (GRAPHIC PICTURES)

Mephedrone: Top 10 Facts (GRAPHIC PICTURES)
The Huffington Post UK
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Getty

SEE ALSO: 'Krokodil' Trend Of Flesh-Rotting Drugs Hits UK (GRAPHIC PICTURES)

  • Mephedrone is a powerful stimulant and is part of a group of drugs that are closely related to amphetamines, like speed and ecstasy.

  • Street names include: Meph, meow, miaow-miaow, m-cat, plant food, drone, bubbles, kitty cat.

  • It is quite a new 'designer drug' and was a so-called legal high until 2010 when it was made a Class B drug. There were six deaths involving mephedrone reported in 2011 in England and Wales.

  • It is risky as you can never be entirely sure that what you’re buying, experts have warned. Research suggests that on average mephedrone is 50% pure, so it’s not just the mephedrone that goes in to a user's bloodstream. Fears have now spread of the 'Krokodilising' of mephedrone.

    • WARNING GRAPHIC IMAGES BELOW

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Krokodil (Desomorphine) was first developed as a painkiller in The United States in the 1930’s

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The horrifying effects of krokodil

  • Media organisations including the BBC and The Guardian incorrectly reported mephedrone was commonly used as a plant fertiliser. In fact sellers of the drug described it as "plant food" because it was illegal to sell the compound for human consumption.

  • In November 2009, the tabloid newspaper, The Sun published a story stating that a man had ripped off his own scrotum whilst using mephedrone. The story was later shown to be an online joke posted on mephedrone.com, which was later included in a police report with the caveat that it could be unreliable.

  • Users of mephedrone say positive side effects include: alertness, euphoria, excitement, the urge to talk, openness, sex drive and a feeling of stimulation.

  • Although they may have similar sounding scientific names, mephedrone, methedrone and methadone are entirely different substances. Methadone is a pharmaceutical medication used as a very powerful painkiller to treat heroin addicts typically administered to patients in the form of a green liquid at drug treatment clinics. Methedrone is a stimulant banned in Sweden and the UK.

  • According to a survey by Mixmag, negative side effects include: excessive sweating, headaches, heart palpitations, nausea, bad circulation. Reports have shown that injecting the drug can cause severe tissue damage.

  • Unlike many other recreational drugs, such as amphetamines and ecstasy, mephedrone was not first developed as a medicine. Put simply - we do not know what the medium-term, long-term and many of the short-term effects might be.

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